Passing Time, Bringing Dawn
by Berzerkerprime
Summary: Sequel to Passing Time, Fighting Night. The day starts off well enough for the X-Men, despite the cafeteria being down for repairs. But when Cerebro gets some strange readings, the students are in for a clash with the ages... literally.
1. A Mystery for Cerebro

Passing Time, Bringing Dawn part 1 Passing Time, Bringing Dawn

by Berzerker_prime 

Summary: The starts off easily enough for the Mutants at Xavier's School for the Gifted. It's been one week since the freak accident at the High School cafeteria, and Kitty's kept everything to herself, assuming the timeline has been straightened out. But when Cerebro gets an odd reading, the X-Men are in for a clash between ages... literally. Sequal to Passing Time, Fighting Night. 

AN:   
Well! Here we go again, ne? ^_^;   
Just couldn't keep my hands off this story line for long. Meant to work some on some other stories for a bit, but this one refused to go away and, as everyone knows, you gotta _LISTEN_ to the muse when she strike-er-visits, else she never return. So, here I am.   
In the regular "current time" timeline, it's been a week since the spontanious Chrono Hole that sent Kitty 15 years into the future, then spit her back out again a split second later.   
Oops! Muse is yelling at me for being so long-winded. ^_^;   
Enjoy, minna-san. And remember; fanfic authors _like_ feedback! ^_^ 

********* 

Once again, he was running. Just like always, he was running. The three others were behind him and countless others, the enemy, were behind them.   
But why? If it had been any other time that he had already experienced, he wouldn't be so perplexed, but this time it shouldn't have been happening. It was supposed to be over, all of it.   
Dammit, he wasn't supposed to exist as he was now any more!   
More of the enemy blocked the way ahead of them, raising weapons and taking aim at him and his three companions, so he darted down the nearest side corridor, making certain the others followed him.   
"K! K! What's happening in there!" a voice shouted into his ear.   
He skidded to a halt just short of the wall of a dead end, crashing into it when at least one of his companions crashed into him. They disentangled themselves from each other and turned back toward the main corridor, only to find it blocked by several unfriendly faces, each loaded to the teeth with weapons.   
"Morlocks! To me!" he called to his three companions as one of them let loose a barrage of fire. At once, three hands clamped down on his shoulders and he kicked his talents to life, allowing the smell of brimstone to encompass all four of them.   
After only a few moments, they all found themselves falling in some dark, unfriendly underworld. When they hit bottom of this pit, they found that they landed in something liquid, acrid smelling, and on the whole quite cold and unpleasant.   
Fire Bomber was the first to get her head above the surface, followed shortly by both Forge and Toad. Fire Bomber lit a fireball in her hand in order to get a look at their surroundings. They looked about and found that they were swimming in the vast, unsightly river of sewer sludge. Forge and Fire Bomber looked about, counting heads.   
"Where's Nightcrawler?" Fire Bomber demanded.   
"I got 'im!" Toad called into the cavern of tile and cement, hauling a semi-conscious Nightcrawler to the surface, coughing and sputtering. "Man, he don't look too good."   
"Everyone outta the river," Fire Bomber ordered, "we gotta keep moving."   
"Yeah, but where?" Forge asked, climbing out of the sewage and helping Toad get Nightcrawler onto the dry ledge. "Where'd the 'Crawler drop us?"   
Fire Bomber held her fireball up to the wall and searched until she found a small, intricate graffiti tag. She ran her finger over it for a moment, searching her memory. "We're under drop point nemesis," she stated.   
"Nemesis!" Toad exclaimed. "But that's almost three miles!"   
"No wonder K's out of it," Fire Bomber mused, "okay, let's get moving. And Forge, contact Blizzard and tell him what happened."   
"Yeah, sure," he responded, "as soon as I figure it out. What the hell are we still doing here?"   
Thoughtfully, Fire Bomber hauled Nightcrawler onto her shoulder, relieved to hear a small moan from him. "I'm not sure, but… I'm remembering something else, now. Something I don't think I knew before. Kinda like something I'd forgotten up to now. But we don't have time to deal with it now. Let's get a move on."   
And so, with that, four battle-weary Morlocks began moving through the sewers of New York City. 

Fifteen years in their past, in a place and time much more pleasant and storybook, a group of high schoolers were just returning to their home. It was a sprawling estate on Bayville's Graymalkin drive, complete with mansion, pool, six car garage, and secret underground Mutant training facility.   
Yes, storybook is the word for it.   
Scott Summers drove his sports car up the driveway and into the garage and as soon as he had stopped the car's movement, the six teens jumped out of the car and rushed for the door into the mansion, each one of them with food on their minds. However, as soon as Even, first in line, had opened the door, they found Logan blocking the hallway. He had that look in his eye.   
It was only an instant before all the teens had turned around and started to go off in all directions, looking for other ways into the house.   
"Hold it," Logan ordered, inducing sighs in the group.   
"C'mon, Mister Logan," Kitty pleaded, "it's the weekend. You can't, like, seriously believe we wanna do a Danger Room run right away."   
"Yeah, man," Evan agreed with his fellow freshman, "can't it at least wait until tomorrow?"   
"Or at least until after a small snack, ja?" Kurt put in.   
"Yeah," Jean voiced, "the school cafeteria's been down for repairs for the past week and all we've had are brown bag lunches."   
"No," Logan stated, "you all begged and pleaded with me all week on the grounds that you all had tests at school. You all agreed to Friday evening, so here we are. Get a move on." He spotted Evan ducking into a corner behind the car. "That includes you, Porcupine. C'mon."   
Grumbling all the way, the group sauntered into the mansion and down the hallways toward the Danger Room, Logan on their heels the whole way, acting like a sheepdog, making certain he didn't lose a single teen on the way. They passed by the study, where Professor Xavier was deeply engulfed in a book. He looked up as the grouchy group passed by, giving a wry smile as they passed. He buried himself in his text again and lost himself in it. It was about an hour later when a buzzer went off, accompanied by a blinking red light. Xavier frowned and put his book down before wheeling himself out of the study and down to the end of the hallway. He touched a panel, revealing a hidden door, and entered the hidden alcove of the Cerebro computer. He slipped on the headgear to assist its search, then called up the findings.   
"Three Mutant signatures detected," Cerebro chirped out. "Two unknown, one identified."   
"Display identified Mutant," Xavier commanded, his curiosity piquing. A familiar picture popped up on the screen.   
"Location; Bayville, New York. Name: Kurt Wagner. Mutant identified as: Nightcrawler."   
"Are the other two signatures with him?"   
"Confirmed."   
Xavier raised an eyebrow. "Where in Bayville?" he asked the computer.   
"Location: 2103 Northport avenue. Bayville High School."   
"Strange," Xavier mused to himself, taking the headgear off. He pressed a button on the console, activating the intercom. "Logan, are you there?"   
There was a pause for a moment, then Logan's voice came through the speaker. "Right here, Charles."   
"Are all the students still in the Danger Room with you?"   
"Yeah, they're all still here. And they're gonna be here until they get this drill right." It was obvious he was talking not only to Xavier.   
The professor considered for a moment, then sighed inwardly. "We may have a situation brewing," he told Logan, "bring the students to my study, please." 

"I swear, Professor, I vas in ze Danger Room ze whole time," Kurt professed, both of his three-fingered hands spread out in front of him, "I didn't 'port anywhere besides in zere."   
"I believe you, Kurt," Xavier stated, his fingers steepled in thought, "that isn't the issue, in this case. The issue is that I don't know what is happening over at the school, but there are three Mutants we must find there."   
"Do we have identities for any of them?" Scott asked.   
"Assuming the one is not, if fact, Kurt, no," Xavier said, "which is what makes this mission dangerous."   
"Nothin' we can't handle, Charles," Logan stated.   
"Hey," Rogue chimed up, casting a sidelong glance to Logan, "if we can handle yah trainin', we can handle anythin'." 

It was nearly six o'clock by the time the entire team dumped out of the X Van in the more secluded back parking lot of the High School. The Sun was well on its way to setting, casting long, dark shadows in the orange light. The school was quiet, save for a few chirping birds in the trees of the grounds and out and about picking at various foodstuffs discarded by students, both in and out of the trash cans.   
"All right," Xavier said, regarding the group, "once you're inside the school, split into three groups. Cyclops, Rogue, and Spyke will search the feildhouse and gymnasium area. Wolverine and Shadowcat, take the west wing classrooms. Storm, Nightcrawler, and Jean, you take the east wing. Contact me the moment you find anything."   
There were nods of assent all around and it took only a few moments for Shadowcat and Nightcrawler to get everyone into the building. Xavier sat back in his chair and waited, opening his sixth sense and listening to whatever might come, either from his people or others. In the meantime, he contemplated Cerebro's readouts. Was it possible, he wondered, to fool the computer into thinking one Mutant was another? Such a thing seemed almost impossible.   
His thoughts were interrupted by that characteristic combination explosion and sucking sound, that "bamf," that signaled Kurt's entrance. It had occurred above him and there was a shaking of branches in the tree he was sitting under. He was about to say something when a dark figure dropped down in front of him, landing on all fours, then standing on two animal-like feet. From the mental signal Xavier had gotten, he had expected Nightcrawler and was about to launch into a speech about sneaking up on one's professor when he caught sight of the person standing in front of him.   
This Nightcrawler was older, to be sure. In whatever time had passed, he had managed to put on a few more muscles which shown through the sleeves of the modified uniform he was wearing. But the most distinguishing difference was an overt lack of an eye on the left side of this Nightcrawler's face.   
"Xavier," he said to the telepath, "zere's no time to be confused. Ve need to talk, now." 

********* 

Yup! Things aren't as cleanly worked out as they were supposed to be. Humdingers to follow in the next chapter! ^_~   
Til then, everyone!   
Ja ne! ^_^   
  



	2. Reunion in the Future Tense

Passing Time, Bringing Dawn part 2 Passing Time, Bringing Dawn

by Berzerker_prime 

Summary: The high school is searched and found empty, but that's when Xavier calls everyone back to the parking lot for some very interesting revelations. 

AN:   
Welly welly well well! Here's the second chapter, folks! Thanks to everyone who reviewed part one. You're in for some surprises, now. I know that at least one person isn't expecting what's going to be revelaed in this chapter.   
Mwahahahaha!!!   
*ahem*   
Anyway, here we go. Enjoy, everyone and remember to tell me if you like it or if you think it stinks. ^_^   
Onward! 

********* 

Kitty usually hated the hallways of the High School. After all, it was where most of the geek-teasing went on, it was where the lockers were, and it was the place where everyone eventually ran into everyone else. All this aside, though, she hated them worse at the moment. The orange light from the sunset poured in the windows, making the scene just creepy instead of scary. And it just wasn't natural for it to be so quiet in the hallways. When not even the voices of teachers drifted in the air, it was just too quiet.   
It gave her comfort that Wolverine was there with her. She took comfort in the fact that should Mystique or one of the other members of the Brotherhood pop out of the woodwork, they would promptly be sliced to eensy, weensy pieces by his adamantium claws.   
"So, like, any idea where to start looking?" Shadowcat whispered to Wolverine, not wanting to disrupt the unnatural silence for some reason that she couldn't place.   
"It's your school, Half Pint," Wolverine responded, "you tell me."   
"Well, I guess we could, like, start with the classrooms or something."   
Wolverine looked at her with a less than impressed look on his face. It was as if he was saying it right to her face. _Brilliant idea._ She laughed a nervous laugh, then moved toward the nearest classroom door. She turned the knob and opened it so that she and Wolverine could take a peek.   
Out of the blue, something small, gray, and furry rushed out as soon as the door had cracked open. It announced itself with several squeaks as it skittered around the corner and down the hall. It was presently followed by a small, orange tabby cat, chasing it without relent in the general direction of the cafeteria. Dinner was obviously imminent.   
"Eeew!" Shadowcat exclaimed. "Always knew there were rats at this high school."   
Wolverine sighed inwardly. _Kids_… he thought to himself. 

Spyke looked around, wide-eyed, at the massive, empty cavern that the fieldhouse became when it was dark and deserted. Even though it had been some time since he'd come to Bayville from New York City, he couldn't help but feel a little agoraphobic. With all the bleachers pushed back, the basketball hoops folded toward the ceiling of the place, and all the other equipment tucked into their various closets, the place stood stark and empty; a condition neither her nor his two cohorts had seen it in ever before.   
"Well, guess it'll be easy to check this place out," Spyke ventured.   
"Yeah," Rogue agreed, "no hidin' places."   
"Still," Cyclops put in, "we should look around pretty thoroughly. Never can tell where someone's hiding." He pointed to the stacks of bleachers against the far walls. "Let's check over there. One of them might be in the top row."   
As Cyclops led the way, Spyke and Rogue looked to each other and shrugged, smiling bemusedly. Together, they looked up at the massive stacks, wondering just how would be the best way to get on top of them.   
"I'll spike us some handholds," Spyke said, taking aim with an outstretched arm.   
"Wait," Cyclops said, pushing Spyke's arm down, "we can't leave anything strange here. We gotta make this clean."   
"Well, what should we do?" Spyke asked. "Just _climb_ up there?"   
Cyclops nodded.   
"Me and my big mouth. No way, man. You wanna get up there, do it yourself."   
Cyclops looked over to Rogue. "Hey Rouge, how are you at-"   
She crossed her arms over her chest. "Don't look at _me_ like that. I ain't goin' up there."   
Cyclops sighed and turned back to the stack of bleachers. He rubbed his hands together and took hold of the narrow hand hold the stacked bleacher at eye-level granted him. Tentatively, he put a boot against a similar crack nearer the ground. When he didn't find himself tumbling to the linoleum floor, he dug in his other hand and foot. He reached the first hand up when he was sure the second was going to hold, followed by the first foot, then the second hand, second foot, and so on up the stack. After several minutes of cautious climbing, he slung his arms over the top bleacher and peered over the top of the stack to see that there was no one there.   
"No one's here," he tossed over his shoulder to the other two below.   
"Well, that was a waste of time," Rogue stated.   
And then it was time for Cyclops' slow descent. Silently and patiently, Spyke and Rogue waited at the bottom. The only sounds permeating the entire feildhouse were Cyclops' grunting and scrambling with the effort of his climb.   
That is, until the air conditioner kicked in with a horrific hum-thrum that echoed throughout the cavernous building. Startled by the fans, Spyke took a step back, turning to the inside of the room to see what was there. Unfortunately, his step back had been straight into the stack of bleachers. When he collided, he shook the stack tremendously. Cyclops lost his grip and fell backward about four feet to the floor.   
"It's just the AC, Porcupine," Rogue was saying to Spyke as if it hadn't startled her at all.   
Rubbing the back of his neck and groaning as he sat up, painfully, Cyclops looked up at the two of them with a death glare showing even though his crimson-tinted visor.   
Unexpectedly, while Rogue and Spyke were going around about how X-Men shouldn't be afraid of the dark, a white feather drifted down into Cyclops' lap from somewhere high above him. He took it up in his hand and inspected it as he stood. He looked around the ceiling of the room, finding nothing. "Must be a bird in here somewhere," he mused.   
"You all right, man?" Spyke asked of him.   
"Nothing a hot shower won't cure," Cyclops said, tossing the feather over his shoulder, "c'mon, let's go look in the gym. There's no one in here."   
As the trio strolled across the fieldhouse to the exit, the feather drifted on the breezes created by the air conditioning system. Had any of them turned back to watch it, they would have noticed it fade into non-existence. 

"You zink zat I am Mystique."   
Xavier arched an eyebrow toward this other Nightcrawler. It had been a reasonable accusation, he had to admit. If she had wanted to put anyone off kilter in some bizarre way, impersonating an older Kurt Wagner might have been one way of doing it. However, Xavier had already gotten a reading on the one standing in front of him now. In fact, the thoughts he was putting out were hard to ignore. This Nightcrawler's mind was racing, turbulent…   
… Turbulent. Yes, it was Kurt Wagner, all right.   
"No," said Xavier, tapping his temple, "I can tell these things, as you know."   
"_Ja_," Nightcrawler said carefully, "and zat is something I'll need to ask you to stop. I'm here to change ze future, not make it vorse. Call ze X-men back. My people pose no zreat and ve only have time for explanations once."   
The future, then. Interesting. Nothing but a pretty fairy tale, was Xavier's first thought. However, was there any other explanation? And, there was nothing to indicate that this future version of his student had any reason to cause them harm. Quite the opposite in fact.   
There he went again. He'd have to abide by Nightcrawler's wishes. Xavier made a vow to himself then and there to respect that wish. And he would impress upon Jean the importance of respecting it also.   
"All right, then," said Xavier, beginning to open his mind to the X-men in order to call them back, "I'll ask that you call your people back here as well. There's two of them, I believe."   
"I knew zat Cerebro would get you attention on us," Nightcrawler said, turning away to regard the school building and tapping something in his ear, "Morlocks. All clear. Regroup at ze back parking lot."   
It was only a few moments later that Cyclops, Rogue, and Spyke had returned, heeding Xavier's mental call.   
"Hey, Professor, what's up? Did you… whoa…" Cyclops stopped short upon seeing the older Nightcrawler. "Was… this one big gag from the get-go?"   
"Didn't know you had it in you, Professor!" Spyke added.   
Nightcrawler remained where he was, still looking at the school, his back turned to the group of X-Men and his tail twitching.   
"This is no joke, Scott," Xavier began.   
He was interrupted by the return of Wolverine and Shadowcat. Wolverine looked about ready to launch into some tirade at Nightcrawler for pulling some kind of prank, however Shadowcat's gasp and sprint toward him told him that something else was up. Shadowcat ignored the rest of the group, Xavier included and stood directly in front of Nightcrawler.   
"What happened? Why are you here, I mean now?" she asked frantically.   
Never averting his gaze, Nightcrawler responded. "It didn't vork, Katzchen."   
"What?" Shadowcat asked. "But I made it back again. Why didn't it work?"   
"Kitty?" Xavier interrupted the tirade. "Is there something you'd like to share with us?"   
"Uhh…" Shadowcat stammered.   
Nightcrawler's tail was twitching even more, now. He hadn't moved his one eye from the school building, as if anticipating something. "Vait," he said, "vait until everyone is here. It vill be on anozer moment."   
"What are you playing at, Elf?" Wolverine asked, ever the skeptic.   
Nightcrawler's head snapped around, regarding Wolverine with his one eye, a rather nasty scowl on his face. "Don't call me zat!"   
There were startled gasps all around and a moment of motionless confusion before Nightcrawler turned back to regard the school again. "Zis vill be confusing enough as it is. Call me K."   
Everyone blinked for a moment, then they were interrupted by the approach of Storm, Jean, and Nightcrawler… their Nightcrawler. The three of them were, of course, brought short by the presence of the future Nightcrawler. Nothing was said as the entire group, minus Shadowcat and Xavier, did double takes, looking from one Kurt to the other.   
And then, all the X-men broke into questions, all at once. There were so many, so fast, that not a single one of them could be separated from the others to make an audible statement. However, there was one small space of silence where Nightcrawler dubiously approached K. They regarded one another for a moment, Nightcrawler circling around K as if inspecting his reflection in a fun house mirror.   
"Vhere… vhere did you come from?" Nightcrawler asked.   
K let out a derisive snort. "You," he said, simply, turning back to the group. Xavier had just managed to get the X-Men under control.   
"I'm sure everything will be explained shortly," the professor stated, "correct… K?" He turned back to the older Nightcrawler, his back to the X-Men. "We're all here. Where are your two companions?"   
As if on cue, the little orange tabby cat that Wolverine and Shadowcat had encountered in the school dropped from the tree, the little gray mouse in his mouth. He laid it in front of Xavier, then sat on the pavement, looking triumphant. K didn't waste a single moment and grabbed the cat by the scruff of its neck.   
"I told you to vait inside ze school!"   
"Ow, ow, ow!" the tabby exclaimed, thrashing about. "Put me down, put me down, okay, okay!" K dropped the cat and it landed on its feet. An instant later, it shifted and rippled, morphing into the taller, upright form of a young man. He was about a foot and a half taller than K, locks sandy blonde hair framing his face and partially obscuring his two blue eyes. He was dressed in dark green, punctuated in places by some sort of brown armor. He rubbed the back of his neck and cast a bit of a glare at K. "You know, you're not supposed to do that to a cat that's over three months old."   
"You vere supposed to vait inside until I gave ze all clear."   
"I was supposed to _hide_ until you gave the all clear. You never said where."   
"L… Lycanthrope?" Shadowcat inquired, eyes wide with astonishment.   
"Hey, Kat, good ta' see ya' again!"   
Shadowcat circled around him once, getting a good look at him. "Whatever happened to that scrappy little kid that was always, like, getting into trouble?"   
"The same thing that happened to me," said a woman's voice from above. Everyone looked to the sky and found a massive pair of white wings descending toward them. Once they had lighted on the ground near them, the folded back and faded away, revealing a young lady of about fifteen or sixteen. She was dressed in white, a single gray chestplate covering her torso. Her black hair was pulled back into a tight braid which went halfway down her back. Her green eyes had a sparkle of mischief in them. She put her hands on her hips. "Ten years happened, Miss Kitty."   
Shadowcat stared at the woman, confused. "Who are you?"   
"Don't tell me you don't remember me. It's little Angela. But, they call me Angelique where we go out."   
"Whoa! Time out!" Spyke interrupted, making a T with his hands. "Can someone please explain what's going on? How does Kitty know these people?"   
"Ve should start from ze beginning," K stated, approaching the group and effortlessly commanding everyone's attention. "You see," he continued, "to me… all ze X-Men have been dead for twenty-five years." 

********* 

Ha! Weren't expecting that, were ya'! ^_~   
I'll get chapter three up as soon as is humanly, possible. Until then, ja ne! ^_^   
  



	3. Future History and Past Speculation

Passing Time, Bringing Dawn part 3 Passing Time, Bringing Dawn

by Berzerker_prime 

Summary: Head spinning time-talk and explainations worthy of Inez Versange or any Trek Technobabble speaker! Finally, everyone's filled in on what is going on and we find out why the timeline isn't yet fixed. 

AN:   
Gomen! I didn't think this chapter would take this long! I really didn't mean to leave everyong hanging for so long! Really, I didn't. My muse decided to take an extended vacation on me for some reason, so I got rather stuck on the last two scenes. To make up for it, there's a little extra humor bit at the end that has nothing to do with the story at all. Brownie points to whoever can catch the most Otaku/SF geek in-jokes in it! ^_^   
Anywho, on with the chapter, all ready. Enjoy! 

********* 

Everyone's mouths hung open and they stared agape at K, Kitty, and the two Morlocks. The four of them let the information sink in for several moments and let the conversation segue to questions.   
And again, everyone spoke at once, all of them asking questions. Everyone except for Xavier who simply sighed at the chaos and rolled his eyes skyward and Nightcrawler who was still stunned into silence upon seeing his future self.   
Finally, noticing they weren't getting anywhere this way, Angelique put her fingers in her mouth and whistled. Everyone stopped talking all at once and looked at her instead.   
"Better," she said, "so, do we have to make a line or something? For crying out loud! One at a time!" She put a hand on her hip. "Shees, K, I thought you said these guys were _organized_."   
K blinked several times as though remembering situations long past. "_J-ja_…" he stammered, "maybe I should start again. You all remember last veek, your time, in ze cafeteria?"   
"Yeah," Cyclops answered, "they said the lighting and air conditioning systems got a couple of wires crossed."   
"Complete horse hockey," Lycanthrope put in, "it was actually a Chrono Hole that led to our time. Well, our time ten years ago."   
"Miss Kitty fell through it and ended up with us for about a week, our time," stated Angelique. "Then, we were able to send her back to the moment she left."   
"And we thought that would fix history, but-"   
"W-wait, slow down," Rogue interrupted Lycanthrope, "what do you mean by that? How would sending Shadowcat back to our time fix history? What needed fixin' in the first place?"   
"Everyzing," stated K, "you see, in our history, it vas zat day vhere everyzing vent wrong. It vas zat day vhere everyone found out about ze X-Men and Mutants in general. But Kitty's disappearance caused some serious problems."   
"People didn't only see us as a danger," Lycanthrope took over, "but cursed by God, as well. No one knew what the Chrono Hole was, so they blamed it on God and started hunting Mutants down in His name."   
Angelique shrugged. "On the plus side… there was a big resurgence of religious activity."   
K crossed his arms over his chest and sent a particularly peeved look her way. "Angela Serena Hunter, vhat have I told you about zat joke?"   
"Yessir…"   
"Anyway," Kitty put in, "since everyone suddenly, like, knew about the X-Men, we were the first hit. Only Kurt and Mister Logan got away."   
Nightcrawler pumped the air with a fist. "Score! So, Herr Logan and I got to be ze heroes,_ ja_?"   
"_Not_ score!" K exclaimed, "You vatched everyone else die! Volverine and I did ze only zing ve could and ve ran! Ve rescued some ozers, too, and ran into Toad as vell, but I lost Logan too, eventually. Ever since zen, it's been me and ze Morlocks, hiding in ze sewers of New York City, running from ze entire vorld."   
Nightcrawler looked a little stunned by his counterpart's outburst and he took a step back. "All of zat happened?" he asked, more of himself than anyone there.   
"And all of zat happened," said K.   
"Because I couldn't hold on to Kitty," they finished together. The fact registered a moment later and they looked at one another. "Bizarre," they both said.   
"Okay, I guess that all makes sense," said Jean, "but Kitty's here now, so she obviously made it back again. So, why didn't history change?"   
"Because we were wrong," Lycanthrope stated, "Kitty's disappearance wasn't what set all of this off. But the fact that it happened about the same time as the thing that did and the fact that it was such a weird thing made it overshadow the real thing."   
"Kinda like an urban legend," said Angelique.   
"Then what's the real cause?" Wolverine asked.   
"An assassination," stated K, "zree days from now, a Mutant is going to kill Senator James MacKensey of New Jersey. Ve only have a zeory as to who."   
"Wait a sec," Kitty interrupted, "I just have one question. I made it back, right? So, like, what happened to me when the Terra-Mutant Wars happened? I mean, just my being there would have changed history, so, like, how come you can still remember what happened?"   
"The timelines merged with one another," explained Lycanthrope, "Kat, remember how we said that our timeline was never supposed to happen? Well, neither was the other one. That kinda weird stuff… it messes with time. After we sent you back through the Chrono Hole, we all started remembering two different timelines that both happened to have the same result. We don't entirely exist in either one."   
"So what's this theory of yours?" Storm asked. "Who do you think killed MacKensey?"   
"My muzzer," said K, not without a certain degree of malice, "Mystique." 

The ride back to the mansion in the X-Van had been a crowded endeavor. Even so, it wasn't an impossible feat for the two Nightcrawlers to be as far away from one another as was possible. They sat in opposite corners trying to ignore one another. In the meantime, a few laps had to be sat on. Angelique had immediately plopped down on Cyclops' lap, curiously enough drawing some rather strange looks from Lycanthrope and Jean. Kitty, being the smallest was piled on top of Lycanthrope's lap. She shifted quite often, finding his knees to be rather bony in places. Protesting all the way about how he wasn't ten years old any more, Spyke was placed on Storm's lap. Wolverine and Rogue… flat out refused.   
"Hey! That's my foot!"   
"Watch where you're puttin' that leg, Porcupine."   
"Oof! You're putting on weight."   
"Whose knee just whammed into my back?"   
"That wasn't my _knee_…"   
"Shut up, you two, I don't even wanna _know_!"   
"By face ish smashed inchoo zha window."   
Xavier, in the shotgun position at front, his wheelchair having been anchored there for the ride, put a hand to the temple of his head and rubbed it with thumb and forefinger. Desperately, he tried to stave off what he was picking up from the sardines packed in behind him by concentrating on Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. He was only partially successful and by the time the van reached the mansion, he decided to head straight for the Aspirin.   
They all popped out of the van as soon as it stopped moving in the driveway and a few of them even ended up in a pile on the ground. Everyone was still grousing about the uncomfortable conditions when it happened.   
K, Lycanthrope, and Angela all staggered, putting their hands to their heads and moaning. Angela actually collapsed to one knee. When they finally stopped, the three of them all breathed as if to catch their breath, and then looked to each other.   
"Wow," said Lycanthrope, "wasn't expecting that."   
The X-Men, having untangled themselves, all looked at the three Morlocks in confusion as Lycanthrope helped Angela to her feet.   
"What?" Cyclops asked. "What happened?"   
"The timeline flashes," stated Angela as if it explained everything.   
"The what?"   
"I'll explain later," Kitty interrupted, noticing that K had wandered off toward a corner of the garage and was using that little communications device in his ear.   
"Home base come in," he said, his tail flicking slightly, "home base, zis is Nightcrawler, come in." He made a fist and swung it through the air at his side, making a frustrated noise. "It's still out." He looked over to Lycanthrope. "I zought you said ve'd be able to communicate vith home."   
"Lemme see it," said Lycanthrope, holding out a hand. K handed the small device over readily and his young charge took a close look at it with some sort of small magnifier. "It's working just like it should," he said, "only reason you wouldn't be able to get through are if the other end isn't there any more, or if…"   
"Somezing happened," K finished, "zen, ve're on our own."   
Meanwhile, the rest of the group had pigeonholed Kitty and Angela for an explanation of the alternate timeline flashes. Consequently, they had missed K and Lycanthrope's entire conversation.   
"You mean you can actually see bits of the timeline you're trying to make happen?" Evan asked. "Freaky, man."   
"So, what'd you see, Angela?" Jean asked.   
Angela's face turned beet red and she looked away. "Um… that's personal."   
There was silence all around for a moment and everyone looked at little scarecrow at Angela's comment. Each person there was obviously debating whether or not to press the issue and get the full dirt, but something told them they really did not want to know.   
Everyone stared at Angela for several moments, trying to find a way to segue to another topic before things got, as they suspected they would, raunchy.   
In this doldrum of uncomfortable silence, it was Kurt who put up his hand and spoke up.   
"I just have one more question," he said, "a veek ago, back in ze cafeteria." He turned his gaze and looked straight at his   
future counterpart. "I saw you. You came through ze portal vith Katzchen, _ja_? So, if history didn't change, vhy did you... fade away like zat?"   
K had a small device in his hand and he held it up as though he had been waiting for the question. "Time stabilizer," he said simply, "ve don't truly exist in zis time, so ve need somezing to keep us here. Vithout it, ve bounce back." Carefully, he slipped it back into the small compartment on his belt buckle that it had come out of. He turned and began walking out of the garage. "Lycanthrope, vork with Xavier on ze modifications to Cerebro."   
"Where ya' goin', K?" Lycanthrope asked.   
"I'll be around," he responded just before bamfing off to some unknown location.   
"New question," Logan said before anyone could do anything else, "what are these modifications you need to make to Cerebro, rookie?" He was looking at Lycanthrope with his constant suspicious look.   
"Oh nothin' much," Lycanthrope responded, "just gotta change what it looks for completely, is all." 

"So, Toad found his old CD, then what?"   
Jean and Angela had hit it off, much to the chagrin of the guys. They were immediately embroiled in inter-tempus gossip and Evan and Scott couldn't get the two ladies to stop and talk about something serious. The four of them were presently lounging around in the sitting room. They were supposed to be strategizing, but things had gone slightly off track.   
"Well, then, he had to fish the player out of the sludge in the sewer," Angela continued, "not a pretty sight."   
"I bet he smelled better, though."   
"Debatable. Anyway, so he finally got the thing playing and you'd hardly believe it, but he actually doesn't have that bad a singing voice. But, of course, he was hampered by this sudden low flying bird that had gotten into the sewers and flew right into-"   
"Whoa!" Scott piped up. "I don't need _that_ image! Anyway, shouldn't we be off doing something? I mean, three days to find someone who may or may not be Mystique and who may or may not be planning to kill MacKensey."   
"Yeah," Evan agreed, "you want fries with that? Where's Big Crawler, anyway? He's been gone a good two hours."   
"Oh he does this," Angela stated, "he was gone for an entire day, not too long ago. We nearly had to scrape him off the wall after Jack was done throwing his tantrum 'bout it, too."   
"Think we should go look for him or something?" Jean asked.   
"_Hell_ no," exclaimed Angela, "I'm in no mood to be yelled at."   
"That's still something I can't get through my head," stated Scott, "Kurt... being like that. It's just not like him."   
"How do you know what's like him?" Angela asked in an almost accusing tone. "How can you possibly know what's like him?"   
Scott, Evan, and Jean started at the sudden change of tone and glanced at each other. It was obvious that they were all suddenly regretting bringing it up.   
"It's just that-" Scott began.   
"You weren't there," Angela continued, "none of you were there at all, so how can you know what kind of person K is now?" She stood up from the comfy chair she had been sitting in and looked off into space. "I should... I should go check on Lycanthrope... see if he needs any help." And she exited the room, leaving three very mystified X-Men in her wake. 

One level up, in the section of the mansion set aside for the occupants' rooms, there was only one light on, signaling the wakeful thoughts of one, young, blue-furred Mutant. Kurt was perched on the railing of the tiny balcony attached to his room, staring off at the horizon. His tail gently swished behind him in a pensive pendulum motion, back and forth over and over. He had shut himself in his room, hoping that he would fall asleep and wake up the next morning to find that the situation had all been one bizarre dream. But of course, his plan was thwarted by the simple fact that he couldn't go to sleep. Too much to think about.   
He was interrupted, however, by a knock on his door.   
"Who is it?" he tossed over his shoulder.   
"Kurt, it's me," came the reply in a distinctly southern accent, "open up, already, will ya'?"   
Kurt bamfed across the room and obliged allowing Rogue to enter. He put on as friendly and upbeat a face as he could. "_Vas_ up, Rogue?" he asked.   
Rogue, naturally, saw right through his façade. "Well obviously not you," she replied, "you look lahk ya've seen hordes of marauding Mongols wearing furry hats and attacking the mansion and there's nothin' ya' can do 'bout it."   
"Zat's a colorful description," said Kurt, trying to evade the topic he sensed the conversation was going.   
Again, Rogue didn't have it. "Don't toy with me, Kurt, I know what it looks like when someone's messed up inside. So spill it already."   
Kurt looked away from Rogue and went over to his stereo system, feigning a search for some suitable music. "Nozing's wrong, I'm just fine. Really."   
Behind him, Kurt heard the unmistakable sound of leather sliding over skin. One of Rogue's gloves plopped down onto the shelf in front of him. Carefully, he looked over his shoulder. Rogue was standing only about a foot and a half away, holding up her bare hand and wearing a look that said that she refused to back down.   
Kurt gave a little yelp and turned around, backing into the shelf that held his stereo and pressing into it, trying to get as far away from Rogue as possible. "You vouldn't!" he exclaimed.   
"Ah would too," she responded in kind, "so, it's yer choice. You wanna spill it the easy way, or do I have to get my information from _other sources_?"   
"Okay, okay, just back off, _ja_?"   
Rogue lunged forward, her bare hand outstretched. Kurt flinched and squeezed both his eyes shut, tightly. When nothing happened, he opened his eyes carefully, fist one, then the other. Rogue was holding her previously discarded glove and waving it in the air. She had taken a few steps back. "So? Start talkin'," she ordered.   
Kurt gave a sigh of relief, then sauntered over to the balcony. Rogue joined him a few steps behind and they both leaned on it, looking out over the lawn.   
"I guess it's… vell, I guess it's just… me," Kurt finally said.   
Rogue looked puzzled for a moment, then understanding dawned on her. "Your future self? He doesn't seem that bad ta me."   
"It's not zat," stated Kurt, "it's… I don't know vhat it is."   
"I think I do," ventured Rogue, "frankly, I'd rather have you around than him any day. It's lahk you two aren't even the same person."   
"He vants to kill Mystique."   
"He wants to _stop_ her."   
"No, he vants to kill her, trust me. I saw it in his eyes… eye, vhen he said her name."   
"Well, c'mon, Kurt. It's not lahk she's ever done ya' any favors. And that version of you has had twenty-five more years to think about it all. I mean, when you get right down to it, she's really screwed things up for ya' lately."   
"But… she's my muzzer. How could I-"   
"_Might be_ your mother." Rogue had put her other glove back on and put both of her hands on Kurt's shoulders. "Kurt, listen to me," she commanded, "if you're worried about turning into him, you don't have to worry. We're gonna set everything raht and you'll never go through the ten kindsa hell that turned you into that. Trust me."   
He shook out of her grasp and leaned on the railing again. "Zey… zey say zat evil always finds it true form," Kurt mused, looking at both of his three fingered hands.   
"Elf, if you start down that road, I swear ta' God a'mighty, I'll lay you out."   
Kurt finally allowed himself a small chuckle. "All right, I hear ya."   
"Good. Now, get some sleep. Your pacin's keepin' me awake." She made her way back across the room and opened the door. "'Night, Kurt."   
"Zanks, Rogue," he tossed over his shoulder before she had gone. It was several minutes later that Kurt finally decided to go to sleep.   
On the roof just above, one lone figure had been perched, balanced at the apex where the two sides of the roof came together. He had over heard the entire conversation.   
_So_, the figure mused to himself, _I hate myself. Ha, story of my life_. 

*****SPECIAL INSERT X-MEN EVOLUTION OMAKE THEATER***** 

(Happy, upbeat music begins to play and a bright rainbow streaks toward the camera. The XME cast appear marching over its arch in full SD form.) 

All: (chanting) OMAKE OMAKE OMAKE OMAKE… (Trans: EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA…) 

(Once they have disappeared off the lower edge of the screen, cut to a sequence of scenes in which the SD characters make a whole lot of mayhem. Finally, we cut to a street with blinking marquee signs everywhere, a la Broadway. One by one, the SD characters drop in from the sky and start marching in place to the beat of the happy music. From left to right, it's Ororo, Scott, Jean, Kurt, Kitty, Rogue, Spyke, and Logan. A claw arm, the type you might see in one of those impossible to win plushie-grabbing game machines, comes down and scoops up the entire group. Kitty drops back down to the pavement, bounces, and finally lands on her face.) 

Kitty: Chotto dake yo. (Trans: Just a little more.) 

(Title screen: "Mystique's Bad Hair Day." Cut to an SD Mystique, looking in a mirror in a bed room someplace. It's obvious she's just woken up, because her hair is a complete mess. She carefully brushes through it, perfectly styling it into the perfect do. She looks at herself in the mirror, quite pleased with the outcome. However, only a moment later, her hair pops back into a complete mess. Making a cute, li'l, sour SD face, she attempts to shape shift into her Principal Darkholm form. She succeeds, mostly. Her hair is still bright red and a mess on top of her SD principal head. The mirror breaks and she sighs. Cut to a scene as she walks down a street, hair still a mess on her head. A bird swoops down and lands in her hair. She shoos it away and continues walking and finally makes it to the school grounds. Suddenly, a whole flock of birds swoop down and pull on her mop of hair, lifting her off the ground and carrying her off. Cut to a scene in a woods somewhere. Mystique's hair had been woven into a large bird's nest. She pulls herself free and climbs the tree she's in to find out where she is. Mystique changes back into her SD Mutant form and from out of nowhere pulls a bottle of Zima and opens it. As she starts to drink, we hear a very large whirring noise begin to grow and she looks up. Cut to another angle and we see a very large space ship hovering over her, zeroing in on her bright red hair as a beacon. It unceremoniously drops down on top of Mystique and a door opens up. Several very large Narn, carrying bats, storm out of the ship and disappear into the sunset. Fade to black.) 

*****SEE YOU, SPACE BARBER!*****   


Well, hope you all enjoyed the chapter, despite the head-spinning explanations. 

(Inez Versange pops up) 

Inez: Ex... Explanation? 

(Berz pushes Inez off screen) 

Down, girl. Wrong cartoon. Anyway, the next chapter will be titled "A Lullaby for Lycanthrope." Be sure to keep checking back for it to be posted.   
Ja ne, minna-san! ^_^   



	4. A Lullaby for Lycanthrope

Passing Time, Bringing Dawn part 4 Passing Time, Bringing Dawn

by Berzerker_prime 

Summary: A little down time for the group of X-Men and Morlocks as they wait for an indication of Mystique and her schemes to kill Senator MacKensey. Lycanthrope and Angela get taken out for a taste of a normal life and Lycanthrope makes some interesting revelations about himself. 

AN:   
Holy COW, this chapter turned out long! Much, much longer than I had anticipated. Again, here's another case of how I thought about breaking it up, but it just wouldn't have worked. I guess it makes up for the extreme explaination-ridden, story-thin third chapter. So, enjoy! ^_^   
For the record, this is probably as close to a songfic as I'll ever get. There's a scene that was inspired by a scene in the musical "Chess" and I had originally intended to use the song from that scene, "Apukad Eros Kazen." However, I came across a different song that fit the overall theme of the fic. It's a song called "Tir na N'og" which is sung by Lesa MacEwan and can be found on a CD called "Celtic Myst."   
Special thanks to Kyheena for cracking the whi- er, I mean, her constant encouragement while I had a bit of a writer's block on this sucker.   
Now, on with the chapter! ^_^ 

********* 

"Try it now," came Lycanthrope's voice from beneath the console of the Cerebro computer. Xavier started himself back awake and slipped the headgear on, kicking his talents to life and willing the machine to do its work.   
Finally. It had taken them all night, but they finally had the thing working again, searching not for new Mutant signatures, but for Mutant signatures slightly out of phase with time. After nearly ten hours of work. Cerebro was finally getting readings other than static.   
"Ya' gettin' anything, Egghead?" the younger Mutant asked, standing once again and wiping his hands on a rag. Xavier found himself quite impressed with Lycanthrope. He was only around the age of seventeen and he had been able to figure out the complex circuits and machinery of the computer that had taken Xavier himself his entire life to build. It was quite the startling revelation for the telepath. Here he had been, working to harbor his students. Teach them all he could, yes, about their powers, about the world, about themselves. And then, there was Lycanthrope, who had grown up having to hide from the world as a whole and who knew more about things than Xavier could have imagined.   
"Yes," Xavier responded to the boy's question, "it's finally picking up what it should. But I'm not picking up any time variant signatures. Are you certain that your Mystique, from the future, is here?"   
Lycanthrope put his hand that was holding his rag on his hip and sighed. "Yeah, we know she went back in time. She left our time before we did, by a good four years, in fact. Maybe her target date wasn't until day after tomorrow, when MacKensey is killed."   
"Perhaps," Xavier mused, taking the Cerebro headgear off again and resting it on its place on the console, "in the meantime, all we can do is wait and keep an eye on MacKensey to make certain nothing happens to him."   
"And the two of you should get some sleep, already," Logan's voice came from the doorway. He had always been the first one awake and this day was no exception. He was already fully dressed and had the morning newspaper in hand. "We can handle things for a few hours, Charles, and we may need you later on."   
Xavier allowed himself a small chuckle and began to wheel himself out of the room. "I'd say it's a bad omen for _you_ to be telling _me_ to be reasonable, Logan." Nevertheless, he yawned widely, as did Lycanthrope. Under Logan's watchful gaze, the two of them left Cerebro's alcove, letting the door slide shut behind them. Logan offered Lycanthrope his room to sleep in and Lycanthrope gratefully accepted. Xavier disappeared down the hallway to his own room and Logan led Lycanthrope to his.   
It was halfway down the upstairs hallway where the tiny communication device in Lycanthrope's ear began to squeal and chirp, quite loudly. Letting out a surprised yelp, he grabbed it and yanked it out of his ear, holding it at arm's length. A moment later, filtered through the static and the exceedingly loud interference, a voice emerged.   
"Lycanthrope, are you there? Lycanthrope?"   
"Jack?" Lycanthrope shouted into the device. "I can barely hear you. Just hold on a sec'." He turned back to Logan, urgently. "I need a speaker, now."   
"Kurt's got a stereo system in his room," Logan replied, chucking a thumb over his shoulder.   
And they were off, sprinting down the rest of the hallway and bursting into Kurt's room, the ear comm screeching all the way. Not an instant had passed before there was a yelp and a bamf from Kurt's bed, shortly followed by another bamf above them. A large blanket came fluttering down on top of Logan and narrowly missed Lycanthrope as he zipped across the room and pulled one of the speakers of the stereo system off the shelf. He plopped down with it on the floor and had the back popped open in an instant.   
"_Mein gott_!" Kurt exclaimed from atop the chandelier where he had bamfed to when he had been startled out of slumber. "Can't a guy sleep in on Saturday?" The light fixture swung back and forth gently under the sudden shift of weight. "Are you _crazy_ or somezing?" He teleported back down to the floor and spotted Lycanthrope taking apart his speaker. "Hey!"   
"Easy Elf," Logan cautioned, clamping a hand down on Kurt's shoulder, "we're just borrowin' it, that's all."   
There was a patter of several sets of feet outside and suddenly, the entire household, minus Xavier who couldn't wheel himself up the stairs, was peering in the door. "What's going on?" Scott asked for the group.   
As if in answer, the blare from Lycanthrope's comm began a feed through the speaker. "Jack, we're all set," the Morlock practically shouted into the comm.   
"Lycan… is K… th you?" The signal was still heavily broken by static.   
Coincidentally, K had appeared on the sill of Kurt's window and hopped inside the room at about the same time that Angela pushed her way through the crowd at the door and entered.   
"Yeah, Angela's here, too," Lycanthrope responded, "what ya' got for us?"   
"They found the… place. Toad and Fire Bom… to the secondary compound… to leave the… generator behind… on your own… no way to send… through to help."   
K snatched the comm out of Lycanthrope's hand. "Ve planned on going solo anyvay, Jack," he said into it, "do you have any information on Mystique?"   
"Tha… e kicker," Jack's voice responded, wedded to the static, "we're not… killed MacKensey. Video footage of… showed a man."   
"Never mind vhat she looked like," K ordered him, "vhat about her timeframe? Is she here yet?"   
"Sorry, K… don't have… thing about th…"   
"And Forge?"   
"Same thing as… vry day. Still no… him. We can't… up much longer… to get moving or they'll… track us… check in… if we can."   
And the signal went dead and the room was silent for several long moments. At length, K handed the comm back to Lycanthrope who disconnected it from the speaker. The shape shifter picked up the ransacked pieces and handed them back to Kurt in a pile.   
"Uh, sorry," he mumbled as Kurt made a sour face at him.   
Logan put his hands on his hips and looked to the group at the door. "Well, since everybody's awake now, why don't we all get to work."   
That instantly induced groans from the entire group. 

Lycanthrope floated in the heavenly fluff that surrounded him, half awake. Never before had he been so comfortable, so warm and cozy. For the very first time in his entire memory, he had gotten a full eight hours of complete, total, uninterrupted sleep. He'd finally been roused from sleep when he heard, or thought he heard, another approach. Not wanting to leave the comfort of the bed, he pretended still to be asleep. A fair amount of time passed and Lycanthrope didn't hear anything. For a moment, he wasn't certain if the other person had left or not until he felt a hand lightly run over a patch of his sandy hair. There was a soft sigh, then footsteps as the other left.   
The young shape shifter peeled an eye open, drowsily, and looked about the empty room.   
Perhaps it had only been his imagination. 

K silently closed the door to Logan's room behind him, sighing once again as he wondered, not for the first time, if what he and the other Morlocks were doing was the right thing. Certainly, setting time right, making certain that nightmare that passed for a future never happened, was a goal worth fighting for, worth even dying for.   
Would it come to such a thing? Had he acted in haste? What if it wasn't possible? History had changed once already when they had tried to alter it. What if it happened again? What if it had all been as Forge had said before he had gone…   
But that was another matter entirely.   
If it was that way and nothing could be changed, then where was the harm in trying?   
And K's thoughts went back to Lycanthrope once again. Perhaps he had made a mistake in bringing the boy along. After all, despite how quickly he had had to grow up, he was still just that, a boy.   
_His_ boy.   
Setting time right would mean that K would have to give him up. No one knew where he had come from as a child, Jack and Mylene had simply found him. So, even if he did somehow remember through the setting right of time, he would have no way of finding him. He had no way of knowing what kind of a life he would be born into, about seven years from the present time.   
For seventeen years, the Morlocks had raised Lycanthrope as one of them. The boy was perhaps more a Morlock than anyone else. From the moment K had first set his eyes upon the child, for at the time he still had had both, K knew that the Morlocks were all that tiny little bundle had had. And then, in that horrible time when K had lost his eye, everyone assumed it had been his devotion to keeping the Morlocks safe that had enabled him to keep silent.   
But it had been the child. K had been unwilling to give him up then, and he now found that the same held true. The more it all went around in his mind, the more he found that bringing Lycanthrope along had been a mistake. He wasn't sure he would be able to set right what needed to be set right.   
Footsteps finally broke K out of his circle of despair. He looked up and found his present day counterpart at the other end of the hallway. The slight mischievous glint that had been in Kurt's eyes vanished as soon as he locked his gaze with K's one, cold eye. There was a slight look of recognition there and K studied it for but an instant, wondering just what he had found in himself.   
"I recognize that look," Kurt said to K in perfect, fluent German. Since it had been a long twenty-six years since K had heard his native language, it took him a moment to register what he was hearing.   
"Yes," K finally answered, keeping his own speech in German, "a certain professor had it of you, once," he said, walking past Kurt and back to the lower level of the mansion. 

Lycanthrope looked up and down at himself in Evan's mirror, trying to discern what reaction he should have to his new attire. It certainly wasn't what he was used to, that was for sure. But he found that he liked the hodge-podge outfit the X-Men boys had put together for him. A pair of Scott's khaki trousers, a t-shirt from Evan, and a flannel shirt of Logan's rolled up at the sleeves. And the ladies had seen to it that it all matched fairly well.   
With over a day of time and nothing to do but keep an ear out, Xavier had suggested that the teens take a break from it all and show their guests from the uncertain future the outside world before it had all been shot to hell. He hadn't, of course, put it in those terms, but Angela had endeavored a translation of the professor's aristocratic speech. Kitty had been first to put her hand up to show the two around and had pigeonholed Kurt into going along. "To maintain the illusion of a double date," she had said, to which the entire room's collective jaw had dropped and she had hastened to stress the word "illusion," blushing up a storm.   
Naturally, K had objected to it. The outside world didn't know the Morlocks from the future were Mutants and the best way to keep it that way was to keep them inside, where they were safe.   
Jean saw through it, of course. "Oh please," she had said, "you're just worried about how much trouble you used to get into as a teenager."   
"Vhat of it?" K said in all seriousness, arms akimbo.   
"Trouble!?" Kurt interjected. "Hey! I resemble zat!"   
"That's 'resent', 'Crawler," Evan corrected.   
"Vhatever."   
And so, the quest to find Lycanthrope and Angela suitable clothing had commenced and it had finally come to fruition an hour later. Lycanthrope took one last glance in the mirror, running a hand through his scruffy blond hair.   
"Not bad," he told his reflection.   
Just then, there was a knock at the door and Angela entered, clad in a multicolored sari borrowed from Ororo and one of Jean's white, sleeveless turtlenecks. Lycanthrope's breath was taken away.   
"You ready to go?" Angela asked.   
Lycanthrope stuttered for a moment, trying to untwist his tongue. "M-my readiness… exists on _so many_ levels."   
"Uh huh," Angela said, putting her hands on her hips, "you've been listening to Jack talk to Mylene again." 

Kitty and Kurt had chosen to take them to a movie at the Bayville theaters. The two Morlocks were amazed at the size of the room and before the lights had gone down, they had been spending their waiting time looking around at the old-style theater house decorations. When the lights had gone down, they had all but bolted out of their seats, expecting some catastrophe. They had been instantly hushed by the rest of the audience.   
As the movie progressed, the air conditioning kicked in and Lycanthrope felt Angela give a shiver next to him. He struggled out of the flannel and draped it over her shoulders. She gave him a thanking smile and turned back to the movie, resting her head on his shoulder.   
Kitty noticed them a few moments later and elbowed Kurt in the side and nodded toward them with her head. He gave a soft giggle and they both turned back to the movie as well, not entirely conscious of the fact that their own hands had found each other on the arm rest between them. 

Meanwhile, back at the Xavier mansion, Cerebro's notice alarm had gone off and the professor had gone into the little alcove to investigate the findings. Shortly, Logan and K had joined him, each looking over a shoulder at the screen.   
"What is it, Charles?" Logan asked.   
"Did Cerebro finally find somezing?" K asked.   
"Yes," Xavier said, nodding, the wires from the headgear bouncing slightly, "a time-shifted Mutant signature. The computer is searching the archive files for any match now."   
"So, it looks like this might be our assassin?" Logan inquired.   
"Certainly looks zat vay," agreed K, "vhat coordinates?"   
"Cerebro, position of Mutant signature," Xavier ordered.   
"Location: Bayville, New York," the computer sang in response.   
"Yeah yeah," Logan said, sounding irate, "but _where_ in Bayville?"   
"Signature untraceable. Unknown interference is obstructing precise reading. Mutant signature matched to archive files. Name: Raven Darkholm. Mutant known as: Mystique."   
"Looks like this is it, then," stated Logan.   
"Yes, I agree," Xavier said, taking the headgear off, "we should get the students back here soon. The future Mystique may be looking for them."   
"Right," said Logan, "okay, Big Crawler, you and I are gonna-" Logan had turned to address K, but found him absent of the room. Obviously, he had come to the same conclusion. "Just great," Logan mumbled to himself, bitterly. 

"That was magical!" Angela exclaimed as the four teenage Mutants strolled out of the theater building, past the waiting line of weekend movie goers. "Who would have thought that Captain Hitchcock's son would turn out to be the same kid that the alien commander had raised from infancy!"   
There were several groans and annoyed exclamations and gestures from various people in the line.   
"So, you guys go see movies all the time?" Lycanthrope asked. "And you just… go out, just like that?"   
"Sure," Kitty answered, giggling a bit, "if we just stayed cooped up at the institute all the time, people at school would think we were, like, a bunch of freaks or something."   
"Oh, ze irony!" Kurt exclaimed, in mock drama. "So, vhere to next? Ze arcade?"   
"Oh, not again," Kitty shot back, "you and Scott went over there, like, yesterday."   
"But I vant to beat Scott's time on Doom Racer Four."   
"I suppose you want to, like, rub it in his face or something."   
"Naturally."   
"What's an arcade?" Angela asked. Kurt and Kitty looked at her as if she had just come from the Moon.   
Lycanthrope's attention, meanwhile, had been caught by a loudly crying baby held in the arms of a young girl who couldn't have been more than ten or so. There was an older man next to her, who appeared to be her father.   
"Daddy," the girl pleaded up at him, "Katlin won't stop crying."   
"Give her to me, Shannon," the father said, reaching down and pulling the baby out of the girl's arms. He looked the baby over once to make certain she was okay, then came to a conclusion. "I think all these people just woke her up, honey," he explained, giving the baby back to the girl. "Shannon, why don't you sing that song that momma used to sing to you, okay? Maybe that will calm her down and she'll go back to sleep. We can see this movie another day, I think, when we can find a sitter for Katlin."   
"Okay," Shannon nodded, her pony tail of red hair bobbing. She seemed to search her memory for a moment, then began to sing in a rather well trained voice for a ten year old.   
_A far away isle of earthly delight,_   
_ Its princess awoke from a dream_   
_ Of a young man more beautiful than,_   
_ Any prince that she had ever seen._   
_ Tir na N'og is the land where she lived,_   
_ The enchanted land of youth._   
_ Western beams shine on everyone,_   
_ and every day it's an endless warm afternoon_   
_ There is play, basking in the pleasures of life._   
Lycanthrope found himself utterly entranced with the girl's song and didn't even realize it when he had started following the girl, the rapidly quieting baby, and their father and leaving the other three Mutants to babble over where to go next.   
He was stopped short by Angela's voice. "Hey, Lycanthrope, where you going?" she asked.   
He didn't look away from the family, still rather entranced by little Shannon's continuing song. "I know that song," he said, a vague tone to his voice, "there's something so familiar about it. I have to find out what it is." And before any of the other three could stop him, he was off, dashing after the family.   
He caught up to within sight of them again a block or so later, where they stopped at a car. Lycanthrope hung back at the corner of a building as the father fumbled with some keys and unlocked the door.   
"Katlin's finally asleep," Shannon stated, putting the baby into the car seat in the back with a bit of a sad expression. It didn't go unnoticed by the father.   
"Shannon, honey," he said, kneeling next to the girl, "are you okay?"   
"I'm just thinking about momma."   
The father straightened Shannon's baseball cap. "Is this okay? Me going out with another lady?"   
"Daddy," Shannon said, doing her best to sound grown up, "why do you keep asking me that? I think that Rachel's a nice lady. If you're happy, I'm happy and momma would be too."   
The father looked relieved. "I'm glad to hear that, sweetie," he said, rising again and fumbling with his keys some more.   
Lycanthrope was about to approach them, to inquire about the song, but a small group of rather large and imposing looking individuals beat him to the punch. They were the rough and tumble looking kind and Lycanthrope didn't like the look of it at all.   
"Evenin'," the one with the large bat said, sarcastically, "you havin' some car trouble, mistah?"   
The father backed up into the car as far as he could, clutching Shannon close to his leg. "No, none at all," he said nervously, "we were just leaving, in fact. Shannon, get in the car."   
"I don't think so," said the thug, smacking his bat on the ground next to the girl, "see, you haven't paid the parking fee, yet."   
"B-but this is a three hour parking zone," the father said, desperately.   
"Oops!" came a sarcastic exclamation from one of the other thugs. "Meter's up." There were snickers all around and a third thug called on the first to waste the father unless he gave them his wallet.   
The thug was just pulling back his bat for the first blow when Lycanthrope sprang into action. He launched himself around the corner, silently, willing his power to life and changing form to a large, powerful panther. No one had seen him change or even seen him approach at all, so he managed to catch the thugs completely by surprise, tackling them and knocking the entire group of three back into the wall of the building.   
"What the Hell!" the first thug shouted in terror as he and the other two recovered.   
Lycanthrope positioned himself between them and Shannon and her father. He growled fiercely, bearing teeth, and swiped at the three thugs with his front claws. That sent the small gang making a mad dash for the other end of the block and Lycanthrope chased them around the corner, then returned to the girl and her father. It wasn't until he saw their reactions that he realized he had returned still in his big cat form. He decided to go past them, hoping they wouldn't run.   
"Daddy! That big cat used to be a person!"   
Oops.   
The father seemed to get nervous about something. "Don't be silly, Shannon," he said, "it's probably just escaped from the zoo or something. Isn't that right, mister panther?"   
Lycanthrope stopped and sat down on the sidewalk, looking back and forth. The father once again clutched Shannon close.   
Oh well, no sense in trying to hide it. "Please, don't be scared," Lycanthrope said, "I'll change back, if it makes you feel better." And he did, shifting back to his normal Human form. "Are you two all right?"   
Obviously, the father hadn't expected to have the panther answer him, much less change forms right in front of their eyes. It took him a moment to find his voice again. "Y… yes," he answered, "are… are you a…"   
"Mutant?" Lycanthrope asked. He hesitated before answering. "Yeah."   
"Daddy! He's like me!" Shannon practically shouted.   
"Shannon, honey, shush," the father ordered, urgently.   
Lycanthrope looked at the little girl in surprise. "Really?" he asked. He looked back to the father. "Are you a carrier of the X-gene then?"   
The father shook his head. "No, Shannon's mother was. We found out when Shannon was born and her powers woke up. Shannon herself has the remarkable ability to predict events close to her."   
"It's nothing hard," Shannon stated, "I just feel it, like I can feel momma, here." She pointed to her heart and her father smiled.   
"Can I ask your name, young man?" he asked.   
"It's Ly-" He stopped and stumbled over his own tongue for a moment. "I… I, never knew my real name. I never really had one, since I don't know where I came from. But… can I ask a question?"   
"Certainly."   
Lycanthrope knelt down and looked at Shannon. "I heard your song, the one you were singing for your little sister. I couldn't help but think it sounded familiar somehow. Where did you learn it?"   
"My momma used to sing it for me," Shannon answered, "when I couldn't sleep when I was little. I promised momma I'd teach it to Katlin and any other little brothers or sisters I got."   
"Could… could I hear some more?"   
Shannon looked up at her father, and he nodded, so she started up the song again.   
_Three hundred years will seem just like three_   
_ Never sensing each day from the next_   
_ It's the land of eternal time._   
_ The princess now upon her white steed_   
_ In search of the man of her dream_   
_ She travels through the sea 'till she finds_   
_ A man whose name is Usean_   
_ Usean, amazed this beautiful girl_   
_ Remarkably has chosen him_   
_ "To Tin na N'og," the princess cries,_   
_ "Come away with me, Usean!_   
_ Tir na N'og is the land where I live_   
_ The enchanted land of youth_   
_ Western beams shine on everyone,_   
_ and every day is an endless warm afternoon_   
_ There is play, will you bask in the pleasures of life?"_   
Lycanthrope listened intently as Shannon sang. The more he heard of the song, the more familiar it sounded. With the familiarity came a sense of safety, of love…   
… A sense of home.   
The song went on. It told a story about Usean and the princess, how they made a storybook life for themselves in the timeless faerie land of Tir na N'og and how three hundred years of happiness passed for them like three before Usean began to miss his home and finally left, even knowing he could never return. Lycanthrope found himself actually humming the tune along with Shannon. Somehow, he wasn't surprised that he knew the tune, as if by heart. He didn't even notice when she had stopped and he treasured the feeling he had for a moment.   
"Are you all right, young man?" the father asked.   
Lycanthrope snapped out of the happy stupor he had settled into and looked up to the father.   
There was something about him, too, that seemed familiar.   
"I'm okay, thank you. Can I ask your name, sir?" Lycanthrope asked.   
"Danny," he answered, "Danny O'Rourke."   
"If… if you had ever had a son… what would you have named him?"   
"My wife, Madeline, had always liked the name Sean."   
"Sean," Lycanthrope whispered to himself. He sighed and stood again, patting the girl on the head. "You have a really pretty voice," he said to her, "thanks for singing for me. And thanks for answering my silly questions."   
"It's us who should be thanking you," Danny reminded him, "if it weren't for you showing up when you did, I don't know what might have happened."   
"I enjoyed doing it," Lycanthrope admitted, then suddenly checked his watch. It had been almost a full ten minutes. "I should go now, sir. I need to find my friends. Thank you again." He turned and was about to go sprinting off back in the direction of the theater when Shannon snatched his hand.   
"I can't wait to meet you later," she said with a curious intensity.   
Lycanthrope looked back at her with a curious look on his face which slowly brightened. "Yeah," he said, "maybe we will meet again sometime. Goodbye for now."   
And they parted ways, Lycanthrope disappearing back around the corner. 

Lycanthrope found Kurt, Kitty, and Angela about a block from the theater in the other direction.   
"Where have you been!?" Angela snapped at him.   
"Yeah," Kitty agreed in kind, her hands on hips, joining Angela in her interrogation of Lycanthrope, "Professor Xavier contacted us and said Cerebro picked you up using your powers."   
"Did somezing happen?" Kurt asked.   
"Nah," Lycanthrope waved it off, "just lost control for a second. It's fine, no one saw me. Don't worry 'bout it."   
"Well, just the same," said Kitty, "maybe we should, like, head on back now, before anything else happens." Kurt and Angela both agreed.   
"Aw man," Lycanthrope whined, "guess I'm out-voted."   
"Deal with it," Angela said, latching on to his arm, "and _this_ is to make sure you don't run off again."   
Kurt and Kitty began leading the way back through Bayville toward the Institute. They walked via some back roads of the neighborhood, past a few business buildings that had popped up in the middle of the town.   
Suddenly, a figure dropped out of a tree in front of them, startling the entire group into defensive stances. The figure stood back to her full height and they were able to get a good look at her as she shifted back her brown cloak. She was taller than any of them and as she pulled back the hood of her cloak, she revealed grey hair that still held a modicum of red to it in places. But the thing that held their attention the most was her skin, a chillingly familiar shade of blue, white eyes piercing out from her face.   
"Mystique!" Angela exclaimed.   
"Mystique?" Kitty asked.   
"_Your_ Mystique?" Kurt echoed.   
Lycanthrope took to the front of the group, placing himself in a menacing position should the older Mystique decide to attack. Even though she had aged considerably, it looked as though she could still hold her own quite well, even against three. Lycanthrope was about to confront her when another figure dropped out of the sky in front of them, letting out a fearsome growl at the newly arrived shape shifter. K stood up, bounding back from his landing and took up a stance, facing off against Mystique.   
"Ve vere vondering vhere you vere," he snarled, "vhat do you vant here, traitor?"   
"The same reason you're here," Mystique responded, "Senator MacKensey."   
"You came to kill him, didn't you," Kitty accused.   
Mystique shook her head back and forth. "No, that's not it. I have no interest in seeing that hell we're forced to call a future. I came back to warn you. I know who will try to kill MacKensey."   
No one changed their stances at all, but their curiosity was piqued.   
"Who is it, then?" Angela asked.   
"Someone you'll never expect. It's-"   
But Mystique didn't get the chance to finish the sentence. A shot of laser fire rang out from the roof of the nearest business complex, scorching the ground exceedingly close to them. All six lunged for cover at once, finding refuge behind a couple of trees and a large boulder that had been placed as landscape. A few more shots rang out.   
"Where's it coming from?" Kitty asked, somewhat panicked.   
"That's fire from an XCF-40 laser rifle," Lycanthrope stated, "from our time."   
"Up zere!" Kurt shouted, pointing to the roof of the building. There was a figure in black creeping along the edge, taking aim with the rifle. A moment later, the tree that Angela and Lycanthrope were hiding behind caught fire from a shot, forcing them away and into the open. The two of them scrambled for new cover and Angela tripped on a tree root as she turned. Lycanthrope skidded to a halt and rushed back to her, helping her up.   
K popped his head out from behind the boulder to see where the gunman was, hoping to be able to teleport to him and overpower him. Instead, he spotted the gunman already drawing a bead on Lycanthrope and Angela.   
"Look out!" he shouted, launching himself from behind the boulder.   
Lycanthrope and Angela looked up just in time to see the flash as the shot meant for them caught K square in the back and burned all the way through his chest. The momentum he already had carried him forward as he stumbled to the ground. Lycanthrope twisted around and caught him. Not wasting a moment, he and Angela both grabbed a shoulder and dragged him back behind the boulder. More shots rained down on them as they leaned the unconscious Mutant against the stone and checked for a pulse.   
It was weak, but thankfully enough there.   
"Take care of him," Lycanthrope ordered, his eyes suddenly turning hard, angry, flashing with intensity. He willed his abilities to life and changed form to a small sparrow. Quick as lightning, he flitted up into the air and toward the building complex. Once over the gunman, who seemed not to have noticed him in his small form, he changed into his favored big cat form, that of the panther, once again. He dropped down on the gunman, knocking the laser rifle over the side of the building. The gunman kicked up, flipping Lycanthrope over his head and whipping out a knife. Once he had regained his feet, Lycanthrope made another charge for the gunman, but was repelled by several swipes from the knife. The gunman pushed him back a few yards, then tapped a button on a small device on a band around his arm. In a flash of white light and intense wind, the gunman disappeared. Once he had regained his sight, Lycanthrope looked around for his adversary, but found no one there. Both relieved and annoyed at the same time, he changed back into a bird and flew back down to the rest of the group.   
Wolverine and Storm had already arrived on the scene in the X-Van. Storm was beginning to cover the area with fog and Wolverine was checking K's rather massive shot wound.   
"What happened?" Wolverine demanded once Lycanthrope had landed and changed back into his Human form.   
"Our trigger man!" Kurt practically shouted.   
"Yeah, he just, like, started firing at us!" Kitty agreed.   
Wolverine cast a sidelong glance at the older Mystique. "You mean it's not _her_?"   
Mystique was standing over the group, a pillar of silence, her eyes glued to the wounded K.   
"They… they shot him," Angela stammered, on the edge of a breakdown, "the gunman was aiming for us and he just… they shot him! My god they _shot_ him!"   
Lycanthrope put his hands on her shoulders, shaking her a bit. "Get a grip, Angela. We need to get K some help, fast."   
"We can help him at the Institute," Storm informed them.   
"No! No, I can help him right here!" Angela pushed past Lycanthrope and scrambled over to K, shoving Wolverine aside. Wasting no time, she pushed her hands on to K's chest, disregarding the blood that oozed around her fingers. She willed her own powers to life and her hands began to glow and light began to pulse from her hands into K's chest. She cringed, calling Lycanthrope's attention to her.   
"Angela, it's too much for you!"   
"I can do it!" She kicked her powers up and two white wings materialized out of her back, seeming to lend their light to her task. However, Angela herself began to grow pale, her skin turning the color of a pallid grey.   
"Angela, no!" Lycanthrope pleaded.   
"Leave me be!" she shouted back. Another moment passed and she let out a short, sharp moan as if in pain.   
"Angela, please stop it!" Lycanthrope finally grabbed on to her and pulled her backward, away from K. She fell back into his arms and he cradled her head. She looked up at him once, then she promptly fell asleep, her wings disappearing. She was still quite pale and Lycanthrope checked her over. "Angela…" he said, petting her hair, "my angel… My stupid… stupid angel."   
Wolverine was back with K again, checking the wound. "She managed to stop the bleeding, but he still needs help. We've gotta get him back to the Institute, fast."   
"It's only a few blocks, I can take him zere," Kurt volunteered, "I can get him zere instantly."   
Wolverine nodded. "Do it, Elf, and fill the Professor in on all this."   
"Right."   
"We'll follow in the X-van and be there in a moment."   
Wolverine backed off and Kurt grabbed on to his counterpart. The two of them disappeared, replaced by an expanding ring of smoke and the smell of brimstone.   
"Let's get back, pronto," Wolverine ordered, already making his way to the X-van. Lycanthrope scooped Angela up into his arms and carried her there and Kitty and Storm followed. They all piled into the van and Wolverine cast a glance back at Mystique. Swallowing a growl, he forced himself to speak.   
"You comin' or what?"   
Mystique merely nodded and climbed into the van with them. Wolverine started it up and they sped off back to the mansion. 

*********   
There it is, folks! And now the problems begin! Let the confusion ensue! ^_^   
But, while you're dealing with the confusion, remember to R/R, k? ^_^   
Until next time! See you, space barber! ^_~   



	5. Further Revelations

Passing Time, Bringing Dawn

by Berzerker_prime 

Summary: Lycanthrope and the X-Men pick up the pieces of the setback and gain a little info. But none of them were expecting this! 

A/N: I'M SOORRRYYYY!!!!!! I know, I was evil and I left you all at a really rotten cliffie for over a year. It was terrible of me, inexcusable and just plain E-VILLE!!! This is what I get for going to college and going through about six other fandoms at the same time. T_T   
Anywho, here's part five, at long and final last. Please R/R and enjoy!   
Gomen nasai!!! ^_^; 

********* 

He didn't know what to do.   
Lycanthrope sat on the floor in the X-Men's underground medical facility between the beds occupied by both K and Angela. His knees were curled up to his chest and his head was resting on his arms. He listened to the steady beep-beep of the heart monitor connected to K, each tone drilling itself into his consciousness.   
Angela was still out like a light, in a deep state of REM sleep. It would be several hours until she woke up again, if not days. But, in the long run, she would be all right.   
K was another matter. The sniper's shot had burned its way straight through his chest and had left second and third degree burns on his back. Professor Xavier and Ororo had done what they could, which went a long way, but there was only so much to be done outside a hospital. And obviously, they didn't want to take him there. He was presently hooked up to a breathing device and it was even money if he ever woke up again.   
That left Lycanthrope, effectively alone, the soul source of information about future happenings, causes, and effects. And he didn't know what to do.   
With Mystique's appearance, everything had been turned on its head. Her claim that she wasn't the assassin who was going to kill Senator MacKensey and that she knew who would was obviously questionable. Lycanthrope knew her track record since the beginning of the Terra-Mutant War. This was probably still another convoluted attempt to save her own skin. But that sniper had definitely not been her. He had been in a fight with Mystique before and, shape changing abilities aside, that definitely had not been her. The fighting style had been all wrong. More weaponry and tools had been used by the sniper and when those had failed him, he had fallen back on brute force. That wasn't how Mystique fought, in any form.   
And besides that, how could she have been in two places at once, anyway? If Forge had been right, all those years ago before he had left the Morlocks, then there would have been no way for her to have two of her future selves in the same past at the same time.   
Goddamit, now Lycanthrope was getting a headache.   
He sighed and pushed all the confusing thoughts aside. Naturally, he was left with one simple, unavoidable truth; he didn't know what to do.   
The younger Morlock stretched his legs out in front of him and leaned against the wall, looking up at K's blank, unconscious face.   
"You really screwed me but good, this time, you know that?" he asked. "Dammit K, what'd you have to go and do that for? I could have handled it, you didn't need to… to do that. You're always pulling this crap. All the time. And it's always because of me." Clenching his teeth, he launched his left fist sideward and hit the side of the mattress. "Why do you even bother, K? I don't get it. Why for a nameless, skinny, little street-rat like me? I just don't understand."   
He dropped his hand back into his lap and stared at it for several moments. Then, he was seized by a sudden urge to stand. He did so quickly and leaned both hands on K's bed, spitting out a curse.   
"You can hear me, can't you," Lycanthrope said, "I know you can hear me, so why don't you just wake up, already. Then we can finish what we set out to do here. Just wake up you blue, fuzzy bastard!" Something wet dropped onto the pillow case next to K's head. First one drop, then another, then three more. Lycanthrope found that his strength had left him again and he sank back down to the floor, ignoring the tears streaming from his own eyes. "Bastard," he mumbled, "how could you do this to me? I can't do this on my own. You bastard. You bastard." 

In the observation bubble overlooking the Danger Room, Xavier, Logan, Ororo, and Scott all looked out the window dubiously. Sitting cross-legged on the floor in the middle of the room, a white circle with about a three yard radius around her, was Mystique, looking rather put out and not bothering to hide the fact.   
Logan crossed his arms over his chest, growling out a sigh in the back of his throat. "I don't like it, Charles," he stated, simply, "you know how she is and somehow I don't think twenty-five years is going to change her disposition."   
"Maybe not her disposition," Ororo agreed, "but what about her interests? Is it so hard to believe that she would want to set time right as well?"   
"I'm with Logan on this one," Scott put in, "I don't trust her. K, Lycanthrope, and Angela said they thought she was MacKensey's assassin and all we have to go on to the contrary is that she was there at the same time as the guy trying to stop us. But, I mean, we are dealing with time travel, here."   
Xavier studied Mystique on one of the observation bubble's monitors for several moments before saying anything. "On the other hand," he offered, "despite her… unorthodox ways of doing things, what she's done she's always believed to be for the best for Mutant Kind. Killing Senator MacKensey and beginning the Terra-Mutant War would most definitely not be that. However, Ororo is correct also. Who knows how time has changed her thinking? And with K in his condition, we have no reference."   
"What about the kid?" Logan asked.   
"Lycanthrope?" Scott inquired, "what about him?"   
"He musta had some kind of contact with Mystique. Maybe he can tell us something about how she works in their time."   
"Now may not be the best time, Logan," Xavier stated, "the boy is… rather out of sorts at the moment. He needs a little bit of time to calm down."   
"Time's the one thing we don't got a lot of, Charles," Logan reminded him.   
"Yes," the professor agreed, again looking dubiously at Mystique on the monitor, "I know that." 

Lycanthrope didn't know how long he had been sitting there since he had fallen asleep. But, in due time, he was startled out of his exhausted slumber by a sudden bamf and the smell of brimstone accosting his ol' factory. Upon waking, his first instinct was to glance up at K. He found the Morlocks' leader still fully unconscious on the bed next to him.   
"Sorry," said a voice near the door to the sickbay. Lycanthrope looked up and found Kurt wandering his way. "Didn't mean to vake you. I just zought I vould come and see how I vas doing."   
Lycanthrope collapsed back into the wall and leaned against it, sighing. "I don't get either one of you," he said after a substantial pause, "how can you be making jokes at a time like this!?"   
Kurt took a step back, faltering under Lycanthrope's annoyed tone. Lycanthrope, for his part, looked away and cast a glance over at the still sleeping Angela. "I just don't get it," he mumbled again.   
After another moment of uncertain silence, Kurt plopped down on the floor, cross-legged and arms folded across his chest. He followed Lycanthrope's gaze and watched Angela sleep for a few moments, then looked back at Lycanthrope. The other boy was still brooding, looking extremely lost, as lost as anyone that Kurt had ever seen. Kurt sighed, tapping the end of his tail on the floor behind him in a contemplative, problem solving habit. He finally decided to take action.   
Kurt teleported across the room and got right into Lycanthrope's face, making quite possibly the biggest googie-face in history, a finger at each side of his mouth, pulling it wide, and sticking out his tongue. For extra measure, he tossed in noise that somewhat resembled a "la-la-la."   
Lycanthrope blinked. Then, at length, a his own mouth curled into a thin smile. "Wh… what're you doing?" he said around a barely stifled giggle, pushing Kurt in the face and making him back off.   
The fuzzy elf leaned back on his hands, plopping back on the floor once again. "Um hum," he said, nodding as if to himself, "zere it is. Knew it vas in zere somevere, ja?"   
"Oh great," Lycanthrope said around a sigh, "he's cracked. Monumentally mental."   
"Nope," Kurt said, hopping up to his feet again, "I know exactly vhat I'm talking about."   
"Care to explain it to me?"   
"You laughed. So, I know zere's a vay you'll get zrough all of zis. If you had really given up, you vouldn't have found any reason to laugh, ja?"   
Lycanthrope blinked again.   
"So now," Kurt said, then bamfed up to the light fixture and hung from it, "all you have to do is decide vhat to do. Later!"   
Kurt teleported out of the room, tossing off a wave, and once again Lycanthrope blinked.   
"He's so weird," he mumbled to himself. 

"I think we should hear her out," Ororo stated. This elicited a sour face and a snort from Logan, a groan from Scott, and a raised eyebrow from Xavier. "The future described by the Morlocks isn't safe for any Mutant, treacherous or not. It is in her interests to help us."   
"Maybe," Scott admitted, "and maybe she's trying to get us to save MacKensey so that she can change something else and put Mutants on top. Even if we do listen to her, what do we do about it?"   
Xavier pivoted around on one wheel and regarded the interior of the Danger Room once again, thought creasing his features. "That may depend on what she has to say, Scott. But, for the moment, nothing can be harmed by simply listening to her side of the story." He gazed across the expanse of space between himself and the shape shifter below. She seemed to sense the gaze and met his eyes. "I'm going to speak with her," Xavier stated, "however, I'd like Lycanthrope's input."   
"Looks like the kid had the same idea, Charles," Logan said, indicating one of the walls of the Danger Room.   
Lycanthrope's silhouette was framed by the open door. He stood there just long enough to get Mystique's attention, then entered.   
"Is he nuts?" Scott exclaimed just before the Room's automatic systems kicked in.   
Commotion broke out on the entrance side of the Danger Room. Lycanthrope dodged an incoming swinging blade, dropping to all fours so that it wouldn't decapitate him. As he did, he kicked in his abilities and shifted to his trademark panther form. Nimbly, he jumped to the side, avoiding some laser fire, then bounded forward, toward the circle where Mystique was now standing. Now confronted by metal tentacles of electric quality, he jumped over one, ducked under another, and caused two more to collide, rendering the entire bunch limp and useless on the floor. A few more agile jumps avoided more laser fire and Lycanthrope's last rebound landed him directly in Mystique's personal space, tackling her to the floor and pinning her with his two massive front paws.   
For their part, in the observation bubble at the room's apex, Scott and Logan gaped at the outcome like two freshly hooked fish.   
"Maybe it's time for another upgrade," Logan mused.   
"You boys and your toys," Ororo groused.   
Mystique found herself gazing up into two yellow eyes, neither of which seemed exceedingly happy with her presence. Calmly, she turned her head to the side and regarded the observation bubble. "This place never did have reliable security," she shot up to the microphones.   
Silently, Xavier pulled his hand away from the dial on the control panel controlling the difficulty level of the room and refolded his hands under his chin.   
"I'm the one you're talking to!" Lycanthrope exclaimed, commanding Mystique's attention once again. "You're going to answer every question I've got or, by the X-gene, I'll kill you like the traitor you are!"   
"Really, Lycanthrope, there's no need for dramatics," she calmly and sarcastically drawled out, "you're just like Nightcrawler that way. But I guess that's to be expected; you have picked up some of his more stubborn habits."   
"Don't play games with me, Mystique!" Lycanthrope shouted, adding a bit of a roar to it.   
Mystique laughed under her breath. "Really, boy," she said, lowering her voice, "would you really kill the only person who can tell you who your parents really are?"   
That caught Lycanthrope off guard. He pulled back, sitting on his two hind legs, and allowed her to sit up. Blinking several times, he looked at her with confusion.   
"I didn't think you would," she continued, "help me save MacKensey and I'll tell you everything I know. In fact, help me save MacKensey and history will be such that you could live with them."   
"What's she saying?" Scott asked in the observation bubble, straining his ears to hear the muted voice through the speakers.   
Xavier furrowed his brow in concentration. After a substantial pause and a cocked eyebrow, he returned his face to its careful mask of neutrality. "Nothing important. She's not… saying anything important."   
Lycanthrope shifted back to his Human form and stood to his full height to regard Mystique. She too, got to her feet. "We'll save MacKensey on our own terms. I won't play whatever game you're playing. But first, I wanna know what you know."   
"That would take quite a bit of time to tell."   
"Mystique!"   
"I want out of this steel zoo cage," she stated in all seriousness.   
"Not gonna happen," Lycanthrope answered.   
"Then I can't help you," she said, sitting on the floor once again, arms calmly crossed over her chest.   
"Give me a name!" Lycanthrope demanded.   
"Knowing that, won't help you."   
"Just answer me."   
"Forge."   
Lycanthrope heaved her up by the front of her shirt, letting his abilities show through in the form of a slight growl.   
"It's true," she affirmed, unfazed by the threatening expression, "Forge is the assassin. As I said, that little bit of information isn't going to help you."   
"It's not possible. Forge disappeared over a year ago."   
"Silly boy, where do you think he disappeared to?"   
In the observation bubble, Xavier turned and wheeled himself out of the room. "I am going to go and join this conversation," he informed the others, "it's time Lycanthrope told us what he knows about Forge." 

Once Xavier was satisfied that Mystique was genuine in her desire to help them stop the assassination of Senator MacKensey, they decided on a change of venue. Instead of the cold metal surroundings of the Danger Room, the entire group was now in the main sitting room of the mansion. Xavier had called together all of the X-Men to the conference, hoping that they would all pay close enough attention so as not to miss any details.   
"I'm having a hard time believing this," Scott was saying, "I mean, Forge's always been a little out there, but…"   
"Yeah," Rogue agreed, "I just ain't getting' a picture of him assassinating a senator."   
Lycanthrope sighed and shook his head slowly. "Unfortunately, I can," he said, "ten years ago, when Kitty first dropped in on us, he was already getting to be a little unstable. But after that, every time a time flash would occur, he just got worse. Every time he said something about how 'it wouldn't let him see who she was.' Finally, a year ago, he left the Morlocks, saying something about how he'd figured it all out, that it was supposed to happen. Then, he just disappeared."   
"Uh oh…" Kitty muttered to herself from her seat, seemingly unaware that she had. Everyone turned to her curiously, so she decided that she couldn't escape elaborating. "I think I did it," she said, "while I was in the future, there was a flash, so I asked Forge what he saw. He said he had a kid, so I asked him who with. He told me that he never got the chance to see her."   
"Wonderful," Mystique muttered sarcastically, rolling her eyes skyward, "so your gossip fixated him on it and it finally drove him over the deep end."   
Kitty glared at her. "Hey, I was just, like, curious, okay? It didn't seem like it was that big a deal!"   
"Let's not get bogged down in blame," Xavier said, diplomatically, "we should stick to the facts. Mystique, how did you come to know that Forge traveled back in time?"   
"I saw him," she said, simply, "I decided to follow him after he left the Morlocks and I saw him enter a time portal."   
"We won't ask why you were at the Morlocks layer to begin with," Lycanthrope groused.   
Mystique pointedly ignore him. "As near as I can tell, his trip through that portal took him to yesterday, when our time's Nightcrawler got shot. He was dressed and armed the same exact way. Obviously, he missed his target which provides an explanation to another part of the puzzle." She glanced over at Kitty. "Your trip to the future was purely an accident. Ten years ago, our time, I observed the older Forge experimenting with his time portal generator. He was disheveled and looked as though he had been in a fight. The portal went off outside of his control and through it, Shadowcat dropped from the sky."   
"Okay, so I think I get it," Logan put in, "history according to Forge would go something like this. He looses it, travels twenty-five years into the past, but gets his date wrong, where he runs into Kitty, Lycanthrope, Kurt, K, and Mystique. He looses the battle, so he retreats to fifteen years into our future where he has portal problems and accidentally brings the half-pint there. Then, at some point, he travels into the past again to assassinate MacKensey."   
"Unless we can stop him," Jean stated, "in which case, he'll never have gone crazy and none of this will have happened."   
"The catch, of course, is that we have to do it discreetly," Ororo added, "otherwise, history will know of mutants and will be against them because of the assassination attempt."   
"Zat is a very tall order!" Kurt exclaimed.   
"But we gotta do it," Lycanthrope insisted, "if we don't, Humans and Mutants go to war." 

*********   
Will the X-Men stop the insane Forge? Will K and Angela ever wake up? Will it matter when they do? Will the author ever update to let you know the answers? Find out whenever the heck the next part finally gets finished! ^_^;   



End file.
